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US Elections

A billion dollar baby

Posted on: April 28, 2008

Fundraising always plays a major role in the U.S. presidential elections. It has been identified as an important factor to determine the capacity of a candidate. Money raised is applied in numerous ways, such as for the salary of non-volunteers in the campaign, transportation, campaign materials, and media advertisements. Under U.S. law, candidates have to file campaign finance particulars with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) after the end of every calendar quarter. All the funds raised and the expenses of the candidates are made public after that.

U.S. 2008 presidential elections are also pointing fundraising as a key factor to decide the fate of the candidates. So far, Barack Obama has managed to raise $234,745,081, Hillary Rodham Clinton $189,097,053 and John McCain $76,691,826 (as of 31st March 2008). A candidate fundraising is compared on the basis of net contributions, which means all contributions minus refunds and it does not include loans and transfers. In the last week’s primary at Pennsylvania, Clinton’s supporters contributed $10 million soon after her marginal victory over Obama.

Americans living abroad have already donated $1.4 million for the U.S. presidential candidates (till March 2008) surpassing the $908,000 they contributed in 2004 election. The donors preferred Democrats with 69% of their money and Obama has been the top recipient, but Hillary Clinton, whose husband visited London in October to raise money, conquered the 4th Quarter.

Fundraising is a compulsory task taking in consideration the enormous costs of running a campaign. Just about 1% of the money raised for presidential candidates comes from individuals. Political action committees managed by corporations, unions and interest groups give a fairly little sum to presidential candidates. Any donor giving more than $200 to a candidate has to provide his / her name, address, employer and occupation to the FEC. Donors with less than $200 are not listed in campaign finance reports and, therefore, the Center’s analysis by industry and organization excludes them.

The 2008 U.S. presidential elections are seen as the most expensive presidential election ever. It has been forecasted that the candidates alone will raise more than $1 billion — for the record, a U.S. presidential election will be crossing the ‘billion-dollar’ spot.